Drawings & Pastels

This pencil drawing by John Constable inscribed ‘Binfiled Decr. 6th 1816’ is believed to have made when the artist was staying in Binfield in Berkshire whilst returning from his honeymoon in Dorset with his wife Maria.

One of lots drawing a decent competition at the Adam’s sale at Slane Castle last month was a pair of chalk portraits by Robert Healy (c.1743-71).

Herefordshire was judged a little too remote for most Midlands industrialists seeking a rural retreat in the Arts and Crafts idiom.

Drawn from life at Nelson’s home, Merton, just weeks before the Battle of Trafalgar, this pastel portrait by the marine artist John Whichelo sold for £52,000 at Sotheby’s.

A pencil drawing by LS Lowry (1887-1976) set an auction record for a work on paper by the artist this week, selling for £175,000.

Consigned to Rosebery’s two-day sale in West Norwood, London on March 19-20 is a late 19th century scrap album containing some 50 illustrations.

It was during negotiations to secure the future of the Kelmscott Press after the death of William Morris in 1896 that Laurence William Hodson (1863-1933) acquired four watercolour and pencil designs by Philip Webb (1831-1915).

Six pencil studies for The Days of Creation by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-98) carry an estimate of £150,000-250,000 at Bonhams’ 19th century art sale in New Bond Street on January 23.

The highly distinctive works on paper by William Conor (1884-1968) documenting working-class life in Ulster come up pretty regularly at auction, mainly because there are simply a lot of them around.

This portrait of Sinead O’Connor as a young girl was consigned to Whyte’s sale on November 26 by the singer herself.

As predicted, Michael Winner’s superb collection of original book illustrations realised a total in excess of £1m at Sotheby’s.

It took over 15 minutes to sell, but when the gavel finally came down at £26.5m the Raphael from Chatsworth had become the second most expensive Old Master ever sold at auction – and the priciest drawing of all time.

This pencil drawing by Sir Edwin Landseer (1802-73) is of his own dog Brutus and dates from the mid 19th century.

The most expensive artwork ever sold at auction is to go on display to the public for six months at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Later this year, Sotheby’s will be offering three valuable works of art from the Devonshire collection at Chatsworth House including one of the best Raphael drawings remaining in private hands.

A portrait of Princess Elizabeth by Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970) completed just a few years before she became Queen is to go under the hammer at Bloomsbury Auctions in London on September 12.

An illustration of the Polish composer Frederic Chopin by Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898) was the star attraction at a recent auction in Wales.

Among the best Modern British pictures offered at Lawrences of Crewkerne on July 6 was Edward Burra’s (1905-76) ‘Funfair’, which was consigned from a good local collection barely 24 hours before the catalogue went to press.

Bloomsbury Auctions will offer 42 original pencil sketches by American novelist Norman Mailer at their July 19 sale in London.

Appearing in Carmarthen on July 24, this illustration of the Polish composer Frederic Chopin by author Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898) was discovered during a routine house call by auctioneers Peter Francis.